1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, a readout control method, a program product, a readout control apparatus, and a solid-state imaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, an imaging apparatus, during an exposure period at the time of capturing a still picture, is unable to acquire images (hereinafter referred to as live view images) of a through-motion picture (hereinafter referred to as live view motion picture) which is displayed on a back LCD screen. In that case, the live view display enters a blackout state, or an image captured right before that instance is displayed as a still picture.
As a configuration of a general image sensor, a configuration shown in FIG. 10 is known. In the example shown, an image sensor 100 includes a pixel unit 600, a vertical scanning circuit 601, a horizontal readout circuit 602, and an amplification unit 603. The pixel unit 600 includes a plurality of pixels. The plurality of pixels is disposed in the pixel unit 600 in a 2-dimensional array of m rows by n columns. The vertical scanning circuit 601 performs drive control of pixels in row units. The horizontal readout circuit 602 inputs one row of pixel signals selected by the vertical scanning circuit 601 to the amplification unit 603 in a time-sequential manner in the order of arrangement in the horizontal direction. The amplification unit 603 amplifies the input pixel signals and outputs the signals through an output unit 604. A method of selecting and reading the pixel signals of each row sequentially from the first row to the m-th row with such a configuration, thus reading the entire pixel signals, is referred to as an XY address readout method.
Moreover, in an imaging apparatus, when the operation mode is switched to an AE (Automatic Exposure) mode or an AF (Autofocus) mode, the continuity of signals or the continuity of display on an EVF (Electronic View Finder) is lost. As a method for solving this problem, a method of compensating for the loss of signal continuity using a method such as block readout method is disclosed in JP-A-2009-171161 and JP-A-2005-277513.
Moreover, there is known a technique in which still picture pixels and live view pixels are provided separately, and which has a configuration for reading signals from the still picture pixels and a configuration for reading signals from the live view pixels, thus enabling the live view display to be updated during acquisition of the still picture signals.